Phillip Stokes hopes a drop in grade will be the key to Sansom (NZ) (Charm Spirit) rediscovering his winning ways, after recently struggling at the top level.

Twice a winner at Group Three level in his career to date, Sansom failed to match it against elite company when contesting the Gr.1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield, and the Gr.2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at the same venue last year.

Off a three-month break, the returning five-year-old son of Charm Spirit was part of Stokes’ army of horses to step-out at the Pakenham jump outs on Tuesday morning, and the boss liked what he saw.

“Yeah, he went good, that’s his first jump out for this prep,” Stokes said following the third heat (800m) of the morning, which consisted of just five runners.

“He’s a competitive bugger but Brett (Prebble) got him to relax in behind and he just gave him a nice soft jump out, he’ll have one more of these and then he’ll go to Adelaide and run in the Matrice (1200m) on Adelaide Cup Day.

“He (Prebble) said the horse felt fantastic and had plenty to offer.”

Stokes is hoping to build momentum with an Adelaide Stakes win after Sansom showed glimpses but lacked consistency towards the back end of last year.

“We’ll kick him off there, his fresh form’s good, he just got a bit lost there last prep, he won so well first up, we threw him in the deep end in a couple of Group 1s and although he wasn’t getting beaten far he just wasn’t racing well,” Stokes said.

“We’re hoping to go back in grade, not that it’s going to be an easy race but hopefully back in Adelaide he can find his way.”